Daily Lectionary

Deuteronomy 9:23-10:22

²³ And when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God and did not believe him or obey his voice.
²⁴ You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.
²⁵ “So I lay prostrate before the LORD for these forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said he would destroy you.
²⁶ And I prayed to the LORD, ‘O Lord GOD, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
²⁷ Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin,
²⁸ lest the land from which you brought us say, “Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.”
²⁹ For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’
¹ “At that time the LORD said to me, ‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and make an ark of wood.
² And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.’
³ So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.
⁴ And he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments that the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me.
⁵ Then I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark that I had made. And there they are, as the LORD commanded me.”
⁶ (The people of Israel journeyed from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried. And his son Eleazar ministered as priest in his place.
⁷ From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with brooks of water.
⁸ At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD to stand before the LORD to minister to him and to bless in his name, to this day.
⁹ Therefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers. The LORD is his inheritance, as the LORD your God said to him.)
¹⁰ “I myself stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights, and the LORD listened to me that time also. The LORD was unwilling to destroy you.
¹¹ And the LORD said to me, ‘Arise, go on your journey at the head of the people, so that they may go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give them.’
¹² “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
¹³ and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?
¹⁴ Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.
¹⁵ Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.
¹⁶ Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.
¹⁷ For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.
¹⁸ He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.
¹⁹ Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
²⁰ You shall fear the LORD your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear.
²¹ He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen.
²² Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven. (ESV)

Matthew 8:1-17

¹ When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.
² And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”
³ And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
⁴ And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
⁵ When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him,
⁶ “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.”
⁷ And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
⁸ But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.
⁹ For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
¹⁰ When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.
¹¹ I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,
¹² while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
¹³ And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.
¹⁴ And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever.
¹⁵ He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him.
¹⁶ That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.
¹⁷ This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.” (ESV)